High Diesel costs forcing me to drive sons Ranger

[Hi Line Diesel]

I drive 60 miles one way to work and unfortunately it's become cheaper to drive my son's 88 ranger v6 to work than my Cummins powered Dodge near same fuel mileage..Cummins gets a couple mpg more.. problem is.. the ranger has for the last few years, only been driven by the boy to the school bus stop and back... now that I'm driving it to work the lifters have gone nuts in it. I completely overhauled the engine about five or six years ago due to cracked heads...Everything was replaced.. now the lifters are acting up . Starts ...lifters rattle like hell, warms up and gets quiet, then if I get over 1500 to 1800 rpm going down the highway.. they start clacking again... come to a stop and let it idle a few minutes, the lifter noise goes away... until I drive highway speeds again... there is less than 20,000 miles on this motor... what a POS !... gotta take the heads off again to replace about 3-4 lifters... pain in the but... thinking about stuffing something else in there that WILL run without wrenching on it on a regular basis.. maybe a Cummins 4 Cyl B Series. Any thoughts?

 

[adsm08]

Welcome to The Station.


The 2.9 is unfortunately known for noisy lifters. There is little to be done about it. 3 things I have found:

Having ANY of the 4 upper Y-pipe bolts even a little loose will make it sound much worse than it is.

The condition of the cam bearings has a disproportionate effect on the amount of lifter tap due to the design of the lube oil system. The cam bearings are just a bit more important to overall pressure than they should be. If you didn't do it at the overhaul, I'd rip the front cover off, do the cam bearings, and maybe a new cam too.


This stuff does wonders for 2.9 lifter tick:

The 2.9 really is a good engine if the heads don't crack. My truck has over 200K original miles on the engine, and may have a cracked head (not really sure, there is evidence both ways). It still doesn't miss a beat, and it hasn't had anything major done to it. The most major repair it has ever had was the upper intake gasket replaced, and that was because I wasn't being careful and snapped the air temp sensor off in the intake.



All that being said, the 4BT is an awesome choice for a diesel swap if you want to do one. If you do it, take lots of pics. We will want to see them.

 

[bobbywalter]

hmmm.


so for the work cruise your burning what...7 gallons a day


4.30 for diesel is 30 bux to drive a "mackin" pimp daddy dodge fullsize

or 3.75 gal for 87 octane in the ranger for 26.25 a day...

for what a 3.75 difference? on a 120 plus mile commute?

if thats breaking you, you need a job worth that commute. or a really small 40 mpg civic or focus or escort or some shit like that.



if your dodge is pre blutech look around locally, up at work and along your route at transmission shops and run about 10 gallons of that a week. easy to filter with a few dollars invested with easy to get at tsc parts.



naturally your still costing more on tires and brakes with the dodge especially if the ranger is stock.

my ranger is far from stock, a brand new 2.9 wouldnt get 15 on the highway with it and it would live a short life at that.


if you are serious about doing a swap on the ranger for added savings over the long haul, i suggest to keep it as stock as possible size wise and run with a 3.3 ind cummins.


i am looking into this with a ford explorer for my next to drive daughter.

with the looking i have done so far i have it worked out to 3800 with a used engine to swap a 3.3.

lets say i drove the explorer last year to work(i drive huge miles too) instead of my ranger and a few months with the escort....and gas averaged 3.75 and diesel 4.20

3333 gallons for last year--12300 dollars with the explorer in its oem 4.0 configuration....


that same truck with a 3.3 cummins swap......


2068 gallons for last year- and around 8700

3600 bux saved

so in one year the conversion for a guy like me pays for itself.

or i can buy a tdi golf for 10 grand and pay for that fawker to be in the shop all the time and still possibly come out ahead over buying an explorer.


your scenario doesnt compute with me, but if you need an excuse for a ranger engine swap i will tell your wife it makes sense to me so you can do it!!!!.

 

[Hi Line Diesel]

The biggest reason for my driving the Ranger to work instead of the Dodge... here in northern Montana, Diesel is $3.80 per gallon. Gas is $3.23 a gallon.... The Dodge gets between 20 and 21 miles per gallon, with my timing box kicked up and... when it's straight #2 diesel.. most places here in the "great white north" are selling blended fuel to prevent gelling. Everyone knows #2 diesel when blended with #1 fuel oil, while it doesnt gel as easy and it starts better... it also gives you crap for fuel mileage because it contains less BTU's per pound of fuel, not to mention unless you run a bunch of Lucas in it, winter blend is hard as hell on VP44's... in effect, till they switch back to straight #2 fuel, my fuel mileage with the Dodge Cummins is down to about 17-18 mpg.... on the other hand........ the Ranger, even though it runs/sounds like crap, gets on average between 18-20 mpg all the time ! Couple that with fuel thats about 50 - 60 cents less per gallon... do the math and you'll see why I'm driving the POS Ranger !!! I really dont want to...I REALLY dont enjoy driving toy trucks that much. I dont own a car and I dont think they make one that will make it through more than a 10 inch snow drift...rural Montana gets the plows out... oh... three or four days after the snow stops..maybe..... Lets see...$30-35 per day to drive the Dodge comes to what? $150-160 per week...thats pushing $320 off the top of my check, every two weeks... just to get to and from work. When I bought the dang truck in 1998 it cost me less than 30 bucks to fill it from empty.. now it's around $110 or so... sucks !
The point I'm getting to.. while my transportation costs to work have gone up near 200% in the last few years...the pay scale for Certified Case I H service techs hasn't even come close ...maybe 5% in the same period..the old saying goes.... a penny saved is a penny earned.. literally....maybe I should move to town.... NAH ! Being a "townie" doesnt appeal to me at all

 

[bobbywalter]

well, that is more detail, and somewhat understandable....

98 cummins...run great on used tranny fluid mix

of course you may be out where you cant even source a steady supply of that.

if you can, 50 gallons a month of that really knocks down the fuel bill. one thing i like about the 6.5 in my ranger....it gobbles up just about anything

 

[bobbywalter]

I drive 60 miles one way to work and unfortunately it's become cheaper to drive my son's 88 ranger v6 to work than my Cummins powered Dodge near same fuel mileage..Cummins gets a couple mpg more.. problem is.. the ranger has for the last few years, only been driven by the boy to the school bus stop and back... now that I'm driving it to work the lifters have gone nuts in it. I completely overhauled the engine about five or six years ago due to cracked heads...Everything was replaced.. now the lifters are acting up . Starts ...lifters rattle like hell, warms up and gets quiet, then if I get over 1500 to 1800 rpm going down the highway.. they start clacking again... come to a stop and let it idle a few minutes, the lifter noise goes away... until I drive highway speeds again... there is less than 20,000 miles on this motor... what a POS !... gotta take the heads off again to replace about 3-4 lifters... pain in the but... thinking about stuffing something else in there that WILL run without wrenching on it on a regular basis.. maybe a Cummins 4 Cyl B Series. Any thoughts?

what oil do you use? were the correct pushrods reinstalled? does it have the adjustable rockers?

sometimes on rebuilds i have run a base circle type adjustment on noisy trucks. (cold) pump up the oil with a drill and back them off, run em up to tight touch and go about two turns from there.

with a harsh drive cycle like that alot of condensation can occur and some oils will really let you down in those situations....sticking the valve train amongst other issues.

 

[JohnnyO]

This stuff does wonders for 2.9 lifter tick:

The other thing I would try in the 2.9 before I start ripping stuff apart is change the oil and replace it with Rotella Synthetic 5w-40 (since you're in Montana) or if it's not too cold, Rotella 15w-40 (I've seen it in 10w-30 at Wal-Mart here sometimes, not all the time), and a Motorcraft filter. Diesel-spec oil is worth a shot on a 2.8 or 2.9.